We all benefit from transit, and we should all pay for it. Our view: Gas tax opponents are wrong to claim that spending more on public transit shortchanges motorists (or anyone else living in Maryland) Opponents of the effort to raise Maryland’s gas tax have thrown around a lot of ridiculous claims in recent weeks, from the argument that the money isn’t really needed (if anything, the projected $600 million-a-year return is not enough to meet Maryland’s future transportation needs) to hand-wringing over local transportation aid that was diverted toward balancing the state budget during the depths of the recession — as if using the money to spare cuts to schools or avoid tax increases wasn’t preferable to pot hole repairs. Oh, and here’s a favorite. Raising the gas tax in a manner that will result in more revenue to the state as prices rise puts the tax, as Del. Herbert McMillan claims, on “autopilot and locks us out of the cockpit.” (Heavens, imagine a tax that rose with inflation. Let’s see, sales, personal income, corporate income, property, transfer…). But the latest criticism smacks of something worse than the customary short-sighted single-mindedness of anti-tax crusaders. Some opponents say not a [...]
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